


Take the Genius Out

by Trammel



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Blueberries, Cuddling, First Kiss, Fluff, Hand wavy Marvel science, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, Hurt Tony, M/M, Science Boyfriends, Science Bros, Villian of the week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-27
Updated: 2015-12-27
Packaged: 2018-05-09 17:59:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5550032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trammel/pseuds/Trammel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony is kidnapped and when the Avengers rescue him, they discover that something is really wrong. The genius is no longer a genius. While Bruce madly works to "fix" Tony, certain feelings are revealed....</p>
            </blockquote>





	Take the Genius Out

**Author's Note:**

> My Secret Santa story for [jezi-belle](http://jezi-belle.tumblr.com). Happy Holidays! Sorry it's late!

He was screaming. Tony knew he wasn't supposed to scream. He wasn't supposed to show that he was afraid. Dad always said -

_Starks are made of iron. Starks don't get scared._

But he was scared. He had no idea how long he'd been here or when they had taken him. There was something wrong with his mind. Everything was all clouded.

Tony. _Tony!_ Talking to himself. In his head. He knew he had to think. To think-

But when he tried, pain slashed through his head, through his brain, like it was going to explode. He screamed, he couldn't help it.

He was lying on a gurney with his arms shackled above his head, giving him no room to move. It was a kind of lab; people in white coats kept coming in and out, taking his blood, injecting things in him, attaching him to machines.

But the worst - the worst was that he was naked to the waist and they'd attached a large clamp to the - the thing he'd made for his heart, the reactor (it was a hard effort to find the right words) - pulling it halfway out of his chest. If he wanted to stay alive he couldn't move. He had to just lay there and hope that the others would find him soon.

The others. The Avengers. He had to believe they were coming. He had to.

He heard laughing. "I think we have it now. Mr. Stark."

It was the guy that seemed to be the boss of the others. He had dark hair and thick glasses, and looked down at Tony as if he were examining a bug.

"Look at me!" The man yelled.

The man, the bad guy, he was definitely a really bad guy because he kept hurting Tony, was glaring down at him. Tony couldn't move.

"What's your name?"

Tony swallowed. "Tony. Tony….Stark." It was really hard to find the answers. His brain was all clouded and fuzzy. Really fuzzy.

A woman came up to the bad guy holding a syringe filled with a glowing liquid. Tony didn't like that. He didn't want that.

"We're ready for the final dose, Sir." The woman said. The man nodded and the woman took Tony's arm, ready to inject whatever it was into him.

But suddenly there was a huge crash and the woman was hit by something, hard.  

"Stark!" Tony turned his head, the only thing he could really move, and saw Captain America - Steve, running into the room and effortlessly grabbing his shield as it flew back to him.

He was followed by Natasha, who immediately moved to unhook the clamp from the reactor. She started asking him questions, hard, confusing questions about it. He just shook his head.

"I - I don't know. I don't - I don't understand."

He saw Natasha give Cap a strange look, but then she just expertly re-inserted the thing into his chest and then Steve was freeing him from the restraints and handing him a jacket to put on.

Tony watched Natasha go to the computer screens, her hands moving impossibly fast over the keyboards.

"Banner," she said into the comms link. "I'm sending you everything they have. Hm? He seems - physically intact, but mentally - we can't really get any details from him right now."

They took him out of there, to the ship. Tony couldn't remember what it was called, but he knew he had helped design it. Clint flew them out of there, away from the bad guys.

Natasha had talked to Banner - Bruce. He needed Bruce to help him with this. To fix whatever they did to him.

"Where's Bruce?" he asked Steve.

 

Bruce hadn't slept in days, not since they'd taken Tony.  He'd spent several days on the helicarrier, drinking tea and trying not to go crazy, while the others searched for the billionaire. Now they'd finally located him and they needed Bruce to figure out how to undo whatever had been done to him.

From what little information they'd gotten, SHIELD had identified a fringe group of what Tony would call mad scientists. They'd all been worried that the group wanted Tony for his arc reactor, but from the information coming in from Natasha, that didn't seem to be the case.

They'd been working on his brain, experimenting on his brain.

Bruce was doing his best to remain calm, to analyze the information. The Other Guy wanted to do nothing but get on the ground and smash the hell out of all of the people that had dared touch Shellhead.

"We've landed, Doc," came Steve's voice. "But, uh, we need you here. Tony's refusing to get off the Quinjet. He keeps asking for you."

"I'll be right there." Bruce was on the move as fast as he could. "How is he?"

"He's - not himself. Physically just dehydrated, but there's something wrong. I think it's best if you just come here."

On the Quinjet, Bruce found Tony curled up in a corner. He was wearing jeans and a clearly borrowed jacket, and had a blanket wrapped around him. He looked up at Bruce and Bruce saw immediately what Steve meant.

"Don't let them…I don't want. I don't want them." Tony gestured to the other Avengers, looking at Bruce, and his eyes were as open and unguarded as Bruce had ever seen them, even more so than after his nightmares….or after talking and sciencing together all night. "I don't like this place. It's scary."

That was not Tony. Tony would never admit to being afraid in front of other people. He'd admitted it to Bruce at times, in the middle of the night when neither of them could sleep and they ended up hanging out in the workshop or lab and talking.

But never in front of the others.

Bruce was starting to really worry now. He kneeled down carefully in front of Tony and placed his hand gently on Tony's shoulder. "I wanna go home," Tony said. "Can we go home?"

"I'm sorry, we can't go home yet. We're pretty far away from New York. You can come with me and we'll use JARVIS' help to figure out what's going on. Is that ok?" Bruce spoke calmly, carefully, like talking to a child.

Tony nodded. "OK."

"But I have to ask you a few questions first. So I can help you." Another reluctant nod. "Do you know who I am?"

"Bruce. I know-" for a moment it seemed like Bruce saw a flash of the real Tony in his eyes, and then it was gone. "You're Bruce … Banner. You're my best friend. 'sides Rhodey I mean."

Bruce smiled at that. "Do you know," Bruce forced himself to ask, dreading the answer. "How old are you Tony?"

Tony was clearly searching for answers, screwing up his face. It seemed painful for him to talk.

"I know - I know who I am. That I'm forty--?" he seemed to search for the number, then give up. "I'm…an Avenger. I know that. But when…I try to think…it hurts. It _hurts_." He gasped in pain, his hand moving to his temple.

"Ok. Ok. Don't worry. I'm going to fix this."

"I know. You're super smart." Tony's childish, open smile was back.

Tony latched onto Bruce's hand and wouldn't let go the entire way to the medical lab. While they walked there, Natasha briefed Bruce on what they had found.

Bruce and Tony were getting strange looks from the agents they passed, but he realized he didn't care. The important thing was taking care of Tony.

 

Bruce took Tony to a lab and asked him to get up on a gurney. Tony didn't want to, this place reminded him too much of the place he'd just spent days in. But he knew that Bruce wanted to help, so he listened. Bruce was talking to JARVIS, but Tony didn't really understand much of what he was saying.

"We need to know if they did anything mechanical or its all chemical - what about oxygen levels to his brain. Could there be damage…"

"I'm picking up much less brain activity than normal for Sir…."

After a while Bruce turned to Tony, smiling gently.

"Can you tell me, I'm real sorry, but it's important, Tony. It's really important. Do you remember what they did to you? It could help me figure out how to fix it."

Tony nodded. But thinking about that was scary. He grabbed onto Bruce's arm and pulled him closer, burying his head against Bruce's chest. Bruce put his hands gently on Tony's shoulders.

Bruce had no idea what Tony could understand right now. He was desperately trying to figure out how to best handle this. They'd clearly reduced Tony's IQ, taking him back to a childlike state. That of an "average" child, though, because even when Tony had been a child his IQ had been stratospheric. He couldn't begin to imagine how frightening that could be to his friend.

"It's okay. You're okay," Bruce said. Tony remembered Bruce saying that to him after his nightmares. Trying to calm him down.

Tony held on to Bruce tightly. The other man sighed. "Tony…" his voice was calm and affectionate, though. He moved a hand to rub Tony's back gently.

"I can tell you. I'll tell you."  Tony's voice was so small and scared though.  "They - I don't - I can't remember a lot. There were a lot of needles. They dug out - "he gestured to his shoulder where they'd removed his tracker - clearly not gently. "That hurt a lot. Then they put things on my head, attached me to machines. It hurt. It hurt so much I screamed." Tony ducked his head further, as if in shame. "I think I screamed a lot."

Bruce had to take deep breaths at that, pushing the Other Guy back. _Tony needs my brain right now._ He gently patted Tony's hair. "You're safe now Tony. Safe. Nobody's gonna hurt you here. I promise."

Tony nodded, then seemed to force himself to pull back a bit and look up at Bruce. "I know. Your big green guy will smash them if they do."

Bruce chuckled. "He will. He will. He cares about you Tony. I need you to lie still now so JARVIS can scan you. Can you do that?"

Tony nodded and lay back, trying not to be scared.

Bruce immediately began analyzing the scans, having a rapid-fire conversation with JARVIS.

"I am not detecting any foreign devices, Dr. Banner."

"It's not mechanical… are they blocking neurotransmitters or did they manage to actually damp the nerve impulses…."

Tony lay back and tried to be calm. Everything was really really strange. Fuzzy. When he tried to focus, to _think_ , there was a blinding pain through his head and even his chest. His chest - wait, the - the thing - the thing he'd made for his heart. To fix his heart. Was it working ok? Had the bad guys broken it?

He looked up anxiously at Bruce. "Bruce! My heart thing? Is it ok?"

Bruce moved over to him again, his face kind, gently touching Tony's chest. "Your reactor?"

JARVIS answered "Your reactor is operating within normal parameters Sir."

Tony looked blankly up at Bruce. He didn't understand what Jarvis said.

"JARVIS-" Bruce said.

"I am sorry. Tony, your "heart thing" is working fine. There are no problems."

Tony nodded. Ok. Ok. That was good. He looked at Bruce, who was looking at the machines, the computer screens. There were pictures. Pictures of his brain. Looking at Bruce made him calmer. Bruce was smart; he would fix this. Bruce always helped him.

 

Tony didn't know how much time passed with Bruce running tests on him. He took some blood and Tony didn't like that much but he tried to be brave. He was Iron Man, and Iron Man had to be brave.

But after a while he did realize one thing. His stomach was growling with hunger.

"Bruce, can I - I'm hungry." He felt so stupid not being able to help, when he saw Bruce and JARVIS going crazy trying to fix him. And he was just whining about food.

But Bruce wasn't upset. He stopped filling the test tubes he was working at, took off his gloves and searched around in some drawers. After a moment he came over to Tony and handed him a bag of  blueberries.

"These are yours; I know you hide food all over this place."

Tony grabbed a handful of blueberries and stuffed them in his mouth. Once he swallowed, Bruce saw he was smiling.

"Blueberries. I gave you blueberries when we met."

"Yes, you did."

"It was here. We were here, looking for the cube."

"Right. That's right. You remember that?" So Tony was able to access his memories.

"I remember everything, I think. But I can't-" he shook his head.

"Can't get the details?"

Tony nodded, though he still looked confused.

 

"Yeah." Tony looked away, as if embarrassed, then said, "You were so cool. When we met. And you didn't know it."

Bruce laughed at that.

"I'm anything but cool, Tony. But you were a surprise, for me. Meeting you changed everything for me. You've been a great friend."

Tony smiled, opened his mouth, then closed it quickly. He looked down, his face scrunching up.

"What's wrong?"

Tony just shook his head sadly.

"Hey. Hey." Bruce touched Tony's cheek and turned his head to face him. "I'm here and I'm gonna help you. You can tell me anything you want to."

Then Tony moved forward, grabbing a hold of Bruce's shirt, pulling him closer. Tony's lips pressed against Bruce's gently, just for a moment, then before Bruce could even react, Tony pressed his head to Bruce's shoulder again.

Bruce brought his arms up to hold Tony gently. He didn't want Tony to think he didn't want this, because he did, he really did, but there were serious consent issues here. He couldn't take advantage of Tony when he was like this. Tony curled into him easily, so trusting.

"What if, if I don't-" he started. Bruce could hear the fear in his voice.

"What, Tony?"

"Dad, didn't want - didn't like - he - he didn't want me if I wasn't smart."

"Tony, whatever happens, I'll be here. I'm here. I like you even when you're not smart."

"You won't leave? Pepper…left."

"No. I'm not gonna leave you." Bruce couldn't help himself, he put his arms around Tony in a tight hug. "Never. I promise." He realized how much he meant it. After a moment he forced himself to move back.

"But right now I'm gonna do everything I can to fix you. Get your brain back." Bruce smiled. "Because you like your brain and I know you don't like being without it."

Bruce turned back to the test tubes and continued his work. With JARVIS' help, he thought he might have come up with the solution to reverse the process the scientists had conducted on Tony. Finally he had a row of ten test tubes, each with a different solution.

"Ok, if we get a reaction from one of these, we should have it. Let's keep going, in case this doesn't work."

Tony kept eating the blueberries, watching Bruce work. He had kissed Bruce. Kissed him! And Bruce hadn't freaked out. He didn't know what that meant, but it wasn't a bad thing. Bruce liked him. Maybe Bruce even-

Tony's train of thought derailed as he stared at the test tubes. There was something, something itching in his head. In his brain.

"Blue," he found himself saying. He had no idea what it meant.

"What Tony?" Bruce turned from frantically reading the holographic screens.

"The blue one." He pointed to the one test tube that had turned a glowing blue. "You have to - the blue." He whined as searing pain slashed through his skull.

"Tony! You're still a genius! You're right. That's the one."

Tony steeled himself as Bruce transferred the liquid to a syringe and injected him.

"We have to wait now to see if this works."

Tony grabbed onto Bruce's hand again, and got up from the gurney. He pulled Bruce over to the couch in the corner. Bruce sat down next to him.

"The reaction time will be at least fifteen minutes Dr. Banner."

"Ok. You can try to rest if you want, Tony." Tony closed his eyes and curled up against him, resting his head on Bruce's shoulder. Bruce put his arm around Tony's shoulder, pulling him close.

 

Tony slowly opened his eyes. He looked up to see that Bruce was asleep, his arm around Tony. Tony was practically in his lap and had been drooling on his shirt.

He took a deep breath and looked around the medical bay. And then-

He couldn't describe the feeling. It was like waking from a coma, probably. Just, suddenly, everything was there, he could access his brain. He knew what he was seeing, knew what every instrument did, knew how he'd made the arc reactor and the details of the latest upgrades he'd been planning on the suit…

He opened his mouth and all of this started pouring out, just a flood of information. Oh my god. His brain was back. He was back.

He didn't stop talking even as he saw Bruce wake up, staring at him first in confusion, then, understanding, in wonder, and relief.

"Tony-"

Tony took a breath and nodded. "Yeah. It's me. I'm me again."

"JARVIS, scans."

"I am conducting a full battery of scans. The preliminary results indicate that all of Sir's faculties have been restored."

"Holy shit," Tony said. "That was - " A wave of panic hit him from out of nowhere, as he relived the past few days in his head. "Oh my god. Oh my god." He felt the room kind of spin, and he was shaking, shaking so hard he felt like he was going to fall apart.

"Hey hey hey," Bruce said, putting his arm back around Tony. "Breathe now, breathe. It's over. We fixed it. J will run all the scans we can to be sure that there will be no residual effects but we got it."

"They - they- oh my god." They had literally taken _his brain_ from him. "Bruce, you don't understand, you can't imagine, oh my god. They -they-"

Tony was quickly moving toward a full blown panic attack, so Bruce pulled him closer, holding on tightly..

"Come on, breathe. I've got you. I've got you."

"They - they had a clamp attached to the reactor - pulled it halfway out-so if I moved it would…it would…I couldn't _move!_ I couldn't fight them."

"It's ok. It's ok. We found you. We fixed it."

"No, you did. You did. You fixed it. You fixed it! I mean, I knew you would fix it, but you fixed it." Tony turned toward Bruce and was smiling, though he was still shaking.

"Thank you. Thank you. I owe you - everything."

"It's fine. I know you'd do the same for me."

"Sir, I am sorry to interrupt, but I feel I must point out that neither you nor Dr. Banner has slept in over 40 hours. I would suggest that resting would help your body to recover from this ordeal."

"Yeah yeah, I got it." Tony snarked.

"Do you want to go get a real bed, in the staff quarters?"

Tony huffed. "After this, I don't think I'm gonna want to face anybody from SHIELD for a few years, at least. You ok to stay here?"

Bruce nodded. He leaned back on the couch, still holding on to Tony. Tony rested against him, and once again spoke into Bruce's shirt.

"So, I- I have all my faculties back and I still - I still mean it. If you do too."

Bruce didn't know what to say to that. He didn't know how to deal with this. He wasn't used to getting anything he wanted.

After a few moments of silence, Tony tilted his head up and looked at Bruce. The genius was back, but some of that openness remained.

"I do. I do too."

At that one of Tony's blinding smiles, real smiles, broke out on his face. And Bruce couldn't resist. He leaned in and kissed him.


End file.
